Band of Skull’s new record, quite an improvement over their previous full-length album (2009’s Baby Darling Doll Face Honey), showcases a more emotional and lyrically complex side of the band. Entitled Sweet Sour, the album lives up to its name. The group mixes hard-hitting, heavy rock and roll with intellectual, soft, at times psychedelic alternative… Continue reading Band of Skulls: Sweet Sour
Knitting together different brands of jam strands, the Park West Chicago housed an evening of fine music with Chicago Farmer, Greensky Bluegrass and Strange Arrangement on 1/27/2012. The Midwest monsters knotted up the mass of fans with this highly anticipated show. Strange Arrangement described the energy as “palpable.” That’s right, palpable. When a venue without… Continue reading Strange Arrangement & Greensky Bluegrass |1|27|2012 | Review
Since 2003, Los Angeles based post-rockers El Ten Eleven have been creating some of the most unique music around. The duo, composed of bassist/guitarist Kristian Dunn and drummer Tim Fogarty, combines elements of pop, electronic, rock, and dance music into soundscapes that often defy description. Their purely instrumental music, weaved together through a combination of… Continue reading El Ten Eleven | Fox Theatre | 2/1/2012 | Review
Every good student knows oil doesn’t mix with water, the greater density of the water pushing it to the bottom as the oils rises and floats to the top. Los Angeles band RACES displayed such a dynamic on stage at Boulder’s Fox Theatre, one half of the band rooting the music down with a heavy… Continue reading A Marriage of Densities: L.A. Band RACES Unite the Wall of Sound & Effervescent Harmonies
Erika Wennerstrom, lead vocalist and guitarist for the smashing rock band Heartless Bastards, spoke to Billboard Magazine this past November to promote the February release of the group’s new album, Arrow. She said, “I feel like this is the strongest record I’ve ever done. I’m really, really happy with it.” She made a damn good… Continue reading Heartless Bastards: Arrow | Review
The biggest sham perpetuated by mainstream rock and pop music magazines is the narrow “greatest guitarists of all time” annual issue. In the editor’s defense, it’s probably a dreaded task. Most of these sorts of publications (none specific come to mind, of course) tend to focus their top picks on the straightforward rock guitar heroes.… Continue reading Leo Kottke | Boulder Theater | 1|27|2012 | Review
Lacking both the alluring eccentricity of Arm’s Way and synth drenched electro pop driving Vapors, Islands‘ A Sleep & A Forgetting is unmistakably the least compelling album overextended singer/songwriter Nicholas Thorburn has ever hatched. Chalked full of trite, minimalists, lovesick shells of his band’s earlier efforts that never quite get off the ground, this LP… Continue reading Islands | A Sleep & A Forgetting
If you are a Deadhead living in SFO, PDX, PHL, BWI, or NYC, I need to talk to you about time and energy. But not in the “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” tradition of “Practice, Practice, Practice”. Instead, I need to talk to you about the temporal evolution and aggregate electrical output that… Continue reading The Motet | Funk is Dead | Cervantes | 1|27|2012
Amy Ray’s newest solo release Lung of Love expresses the folk elements of Indigo Girls, while allowing Amy to stretch her rocker wings a bit more than she did on last year’s Beauty Queen Sister. She has been called the more edgy half of the duo, and her solo material has always displayed that. Ray… Continue reading Amy Ray: Lung of Love | New Album Review
What happens when you take little pieces of bluegrass, surf rock, Afro-pop, Spanish flamenco, hip-hop, and blues, and then shake them up in the “Boggle cube” of these North Carolina based artists? Well, you’ll get ONE of The Toubab Krewe’s songs. Shake it again, and these same pieces of musical inspiration will form a totally… Continue reading Toubab Krewe Brings Down The Bluebird
